Rotary retort



Feb. 26, 1929. 1,703,418

T. A. W. DWYER ROTARY RETORT Filed Aug. 15, 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet l Vim, @Vey/M 2mg @1f/tommy Feb. 26, 1929. I 1,703,418

T. A. W. DWYER ROTARY RETORT Filed Aug. 15, 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 @2114. a1-iw, Mr MM Patented Feb. 26, 1929.

UNITED STATES I 1,703,418 PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS A. W. DWYER, OF PASSAIC, NEW' JERSEY, ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND ASSIGNMENTS, OF SEVEN-SIXTEENTHS TO HANS 0. SCHUNDLER, OF MADISON, NEW JERSEY, ONE-EIGHTH T0 WILLIS H. BOTSFORD, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., AND ONE-SIXTEENTH T0 ARCHIMEDES J'. JAMES, 0F NEW YORK, N. Y.

ROTARY REToR'r.

Application led August 15, 1924. Serial No. 732,177.

The invention relates to a rotary retort which is of general utility where materials are to be subjected to a fractionating treatment, and has for a primary object to provide such a retort which will enable the fractionated vapors tol assume a-stratiied formation in the retort and be drawn off therefrom in such condition, thereby facilitating' the ultimate separation of the vapors. The retort structure herein described also has the advantagefor general heatingl purposes, of heating the material which passes therethrough more evenly and uniformly.

' Further objects and advantages of the invention will be in part obvious and in part specifically pointed out in the description.

hereinafter contained, which, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, discloses a preferred embodiment thereof; such embodiment, however, vis to be considered merely as illustrative of its principles.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section of a retort constructed in accordance with the invention. Fig. 2 is a transverse section taken along the line 2--2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view taken on line 3-3 of Fig.- 1 and looking in the direction ofthe arrows.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional'Y view of the delivery end of the retort, illus-` trating more particularly a form of gas-tight expansion joint which may be used in connection with the retort.

The retort is of the horizontal type, and is rotatably mounted within a suitable oven 1, as by means of a suitable number of roller bearings 2 and 3, engaging rings 4 and 5 respectively located near the entrance and delivery ends of the retort casing 6. The retort is rotated in any suitable manner, as by means of a gear 7, at its entrance end near the ring a, and engaging a pinion (not shown).

The material is suitably fed into the retort casing, for example, by a hopper 8 communieating through a conduit 9 at its lower end with the entrance end of the retort, the matcrial being pushed forward through conduit 9 by some such device as a reciprocable piston 10 mounted therein.

If the material be fed through the retort mechanically, as by worms or fins, the travel of the material through the retort is quite irregular, and the material is unevenly heated. The uneven heating prevents uniform fractionation, and the vapors cannot stratify under the circumstances. Furthermore, the hot fins or worms often crack the vapors upon coming into Contact with them, destroying the possibility of stratication.

The overheated portions of the material being Vsuch as Worms or fins, the rotary motion of the still causing the materials to be continuall shifted or turned over in passing through t ieretort, whereby the material is uniformly heated. l

To carry out the above objects, I construct the retort casing 6 in the form of the frustum of a pyramid. The retort casing 6 is rotated at slow speed, for example, two or three revolutions per minute, and the material which is fed into conduit 9 by piston 10 tends to fall to the bottom side .of the casing into a vpile of the shape shown in Fig. 1. As the -been in contact with the side walls and therefore subjected to the most intense heat, dropping down on top of the body of the material. Thus the rotary motion of the retort produces constant shifting or turning over of the material, which insures uniform heating thereof, and prevents the burning of portions of such material against the side Walls yof the retort, such as would4 occur, for example, in

.a circular or conical retort, where the body of material being treated would tend always to slip down the curved walls of the retort without the different parts of' the material shifting to any substantial extent with .regard to each other. The continual shlfti'ng of the material which is brought about by the form of retort above described also produces dependable and sharply defined fractionation, and the vapors it has been found stratify evenly in the upper part of the retort, from whence they may be withdrawn as they are formed in such condition as to promote their separation.

The forward feed of the material through the retort is brought about merely by the natural forward movement caused by the rotation of the retort, the piston being operated only at sufficient speed to replace the matcrial 'in the conduit 9 as it gradually falls olf into the casing 6. I do not claim in the present application any processes which may be performed by the retort herein vdescribed and claimed, certam of such processes, as Well as certain modifica tions and improvements in the apparatus 1nvolved, being claimed in my .copending application 4Serial Number 739,451, filed September 24, 1924, entitled Process and apparatus for producing' coke, and inmy cothe requisite temperatures.

pending application, Serial Number 82,440

apparatus for distillation.

The material passes along the casing 6 1n the manner above described to its delivery end, from whence it ma be ejected as by a suitable conduit 11 in a Xed housing 12. It will be obvious that as 'many stills of the purposes I have found the hexagonal shape illustrated to be advantageous, the use of aretort in the shape of a many-sided polygon approaching too nearly circular cross section to adequately shift and turn over the material, while the use of a three or four-sided pyramidal shape for some purposes tends to create too much dust within the retort, although it will serve to mix the materials thoroughly for uses where the dust is not objectionable.

The temperature within the retortcasing 6 is controlled by a pyr meter inserted through an opening 26 in the ousing 12, into the fractionated vapors, the amount of heat supplied by 'the oven being regulated in any suitable manner (not illustrated) from the fed' through. -The entrance end of the retort filed January 20, 1926, entitled Method and i ing material such as asbestos contained Within member 14. As shown, a ring 17 is mounted on the entrance end of casing 6 to support above nature as may be desired may be con- -the members 4 and 7 above described as well nected in series and operated at different temperatures, fractionating at successive stages` according to the nature of the material to be fractionated. ,The "apparatus is adapted to the fractionation of solid or liquid materials, the latter being mixed with a suitable carrier substance in being passed through the retort. This carrier substance may be inert matter, or if desired may be of such nature that it, as Well as the liquid, will be fractionated. As a carrier for petroleum oils, for example, sand may be employed, or if desired fine coal, the volatiles of which will be distilled off at It should be understood that the principles of the retort may also be applied to the fractionation of gases. The fractionated vapors may be drawn olf through a suitable pipe 13 connected to housarating apparatus, or subjected to other de-I sired treatmentwhi'ch need not bedescribed herein. Usually the pipe 13 will be subjected to negative pressure to withdraw the vapors from the retort as they are formed.

ift will be understood that diiferentflshapes, of retort may be employed depending' upon the materials to be fractionated. For most as to turn truly within the gland 15 and packing material 16.` Airv its delivery end the retort may be sealed as by providing the water seal indicated diagrammatically at 18 for the conduit 11.

The apparatus is also arranged to permit expansion and contraction. due to temperature changes While retort maintaining a fluidtight seal for the interior'of the retort.

the present embodiment the ent-rance end of the retort is relatively fixed as regards longitudinal movements due to the fact that the members 2 areflanged and thus hold the ring 4at all times in substantially the same plane. At the delivery end of the apparatus, however, the ring 5 may slide back and forth lon-v gitudinally of the retort, with regard to the rollers 3. A cylindrical casting 19 surrounds the casing 6 near its delivery end and is longitudinally slidable: with regard to certain parts associated with the housing 12 to provide a fluid-tight joint While still permitting the member 19 to rotate with the retort casing. i rlhe illustrated form of joint is shown more in detail in Figure 4 from which it will be noted that the housing 12 has connected thereto at its inner end an annular end easing member 20 which surrounds the 19 and is provided with an internal shoulder 21. The casting 19 is also provided with an annular gland-like member 22 opposed to the shoulder 21 above mentioned, and between these two opposed parts a suitable packing material 23 such as asbestos is interposed. Preferably a pair of wear rings 24, in the form of split rings, are interposed between the parts 21 and 22 and the packing material, the compression on the packing material being sufficient at all times to maintain the joint substantially fluid-tight.

The joint above described permits the retort casing 6 to adjust itself to temperature changes without opening the interior of the retort to the atmosphere; furthermore, at the slow speed of rotation the yjoint does not cause undue friction even when the compression on the packing is increased due to expansion. Preferably an annular guard flange 25 is secured to the casing member 20.

With a retortof the above construction, the upper part of the spa-ce within the casing 6 is entirely free of obstructions or unbalanced conditions tending to cause the diffusion between or intermingling ofthe frac.-

tionated vapors. The sealing of the joints of the apparatus also permits the partial vacuum in pipe 13 to draw off the vapors in a stratified formation 'which the retort permits them to assume.

While the specific embodiment of the in vention has been described it will be obvious that .many changes may be made therein without departing from its principles as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A retort of the horizontal type, com# prising a hollow casing in the shape of a frustum of a pyramid, bearing members for rotatably supporting said casingin asubstantially horizontal position, means for heating said casing exteriorly, means for feeding material to be fractionated to said casving whereby said material is turned over and advanced through the casing by rotary motion to produce stratified vapors in the upper portion of the casing, and a conduit associated therewith adapted to draw ofil vapors from within the upper part of the delivery end of said casing.

2. A retort of the horizontal type. comprising' a. hollow casing of polygonal cross section as regards its interior walls, bearing means for rotatably supporting said casing in a substantially horizontal position, means for heating said casino` exteriorly, means for feedmg mater1al to be ractionated to sald casing whereby said material is turned over andv advanced through the casing by rotary motion to produce stratified vapors in the upper portionof the casing and a conduit associated therewith adapted to draw off vapors from within the upper part of delivery end of said casing. i

3. A retort of the horizontal type, comprising a hollow casing of polygonal cross section as regards its interior walls,`bearing means for rotatably supporting said casing in a substantially horizontal position, means for heating said casing exteriorly, means for feeding material to be fractionated to the entrance end of said casing whereby said material is turned over and advanced through the casing by rotary motion to produce stratified vapors in the upper portion of the casing, a fixed housing enclosing the delivery end of said casing, said housing having associated therewith conduits adapted respectively to draw off vapors from within the upper part of said casing and to receive liquid and solid materials discharged therefrom.

j 4. A retortof the horizontal type, comprising a hollow casing of polygonal cross section as regards its interior walls, bearing means for rotatably supporting said 'casing in a substantially horizontal position, means for heating said casing exteriorly, means for feeding material to be fractionated to said casing whereby said material is turned over and advanced through the casing by rotary motion to produce stratified vapors in the upper portion of the casing, a conduit associated therewith adapted to draw off vapors from "within the upper part of said casing, and means for effecting a substantially fluid tight seal for said casing.

5. A retort ofthe horizontal type, comprising a hollow casing in the sha-pe of a frustrum of a pyramid, as regards its interior walls, means for rotating said casing, means for feedingmaterial to befracti'onatedinto the smaller end of said casing, means for drawing off vapors from within the upper part of the larger end of said casing,means for receiving solids discharged from the larger end of said casing, and means for hea-ting said casing exteriorly In testimony that I claim the foregoing, I have hereunto set my hand this 8th day of August, 1924.

THOMAS A. W.' DWYER. 

